It was founded on 26 May 1906 by Ernest Roberts as the South Australian Railways General Workers' Association, but in August that year broadened its reach and renamed itself the South Australian Government General Workers' Association.
[1][2][3] Around 1913, it expanded its reach to include both state and federal government employees.
[4] A number of South Australian Labor figures served in union leadership, including Edward Alfred Anstey, John McInnes, Ralph Jacobi, Frank Nieass, John Price and George Weatherill, while Dorothy Coombe was a notable early woman union official.
[12] In 1974, the union faced scandal when its secretary was charged and acquitted of eight counts of fraud.
The charges led to a bitter internal dispute which included a legal battle and a physical brawl at a union meeting and threatened to spill over into internal state Labor politics.